Francis Place

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Francis Place (November 3, 1771 - January 1, 1854) was an English reformer. He worked as a tailor, but found time to be an early supporter of contraceptives, and a radical of the early 19th century who befriended and supported many important figures, including Joseph Hume, Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet, and Jeremy Bentham. He published his influential and shocking book, The Principles of Population, in 1822. It was his only published book.

In 1794, he joined the London Corresponding Society, a reform club, and for three years was prominent in its work. After ten years of retirement (1797-1807), during which he studied social and economic questions, he returned to politics. He lobbied successfully for the 1824 repeal of the Combination Act, which helped early Trade Unionism, though new restrictions were soon introduced. Oddly, Place himself regarded Trade Unionism as a delusion that workers would soon forget about if they were allowed to try it. His beliefs have something in common with modern Libertarians.

His pamphlets, letters, magazine and newspaper articles are diffuse and unattractive in style, but very valuable for the light they throw upon the social and economic history of the nineteenth century. Place was also a Moral Force Chartist, but when Feargus O'Connor replaced William Lovett as the unofficial leader of the movement, Place ceased to be involved in Chartist activities.

After 1840 he attempted to organize a campaign against the Corn Laws. The earliest national birth control organization was founded in England in 1877 as a result of his thinking and activities. He successfully associated Malthus with the idea of birth control (which Malthus himself had opposed despite his fears of overpopulation). Contraceptives of various sorts became known as Malthusian devices.